I Wanna Be Your Girl

Sometimes all you really need is for something (or someone) to have its heart in the right place. If I was to give this manga a purely critical review, then maybe it's score might be a little lower. It certainly doesn't have the most inspired plot beats, or the most brilliant dialogue. But what makes this manga work is in how thoroughly it explores its ideas across its relatively short length. The story centers around Akira's struggles as a newly out trans girl in high school, and it portrays her in an honest, realistic way. This alone is pretty rare for manga, but what makes it specialis how the story explores other characters relationships to gender and sexuality as well. At times this can feel a little didactic, a little "LGBT 101", but it serves a purpose. By comparing and contrasting how other characters relate to these ideas, we get a greater understanding of what these ideas mean to Akira, and it makes the characters feel fleshed out in a way they otherwise wouldn't. Overall, it's a good coming of age story with a somewhat bittersweet ending. Definitely worth a read if anything mentioned here seems interesting.

*Spoilers* And yes the main characters do not end up together and I get how how people were disappointed with the lack of a wlw relationship between them. However, it is a sweet story and I believe gives visibility for many queer experiences and non-conventional views of love. I especially adore the character, Sensei Sasaki who is a canonical aroace and it's so rare to see aromantic characters in manga and media as a whole. The art style is cute, I like how the characters tend to look like the shrimp from Sumiko Gurashi and it adds to the comedic tones. Short and sweet at only50 chapters, it's a great read! It still amazes me how well the struggles and experiences with personal identity, gender orientation, sexual orientation is dealt with and explored in the manga. Maybe I am biased to see excellently-done aro representation and trans-representation which is rare in even Western media but to see it so properly and respectfully explored, is credit due for the author.

Really enjoyed this series. It takes a very real look at queerness's complexities, particularly that of gender expression. It's very nuanced, taking time to examine every side of every story, and have each character properly communicate their feelings. It was quite refreshing really! The art & characters were also fantastic, I enjoy the more comedic doodles of the characters, it was charming and cute, and all the character designs were lovely, especially that of Akira's in my book, she's so cute!!! I really wish the series focused on her more overall rather than the ways people feel about and react to her. I wouldn't say spoilersruin the experience, but just in case you wanna read it for yourself blind, here is your warning!!! Just know the series doesn't have quite the ending I hoped for, and that you may hope for. I saw it genuinely disappointed some, so if you feel you want to know before going in, I'd recommend it. There's still a lot to experience and enjoy in this manga that I didn't speak about. =The Ending= So, the series ends with Hime getting happily married to a man (a quite charming, pretty man might I add) after Akira rejects her. Overall I think that's alright, I appreciate the honesty of a series letting their characters be true to their feelings and not force to that extent, but I can't act like I am not a little disappointed about that. From the start it felt they were trying to build up the romance between them, and I was excited to see how their dynamic as a cisgender girl and transgender girl would work in their romance, but that did not end up happening. Seriously, it was quite the cop out to have several chapters about Hime fearing she is only attracted to Akira because she views her as a man, only to realize she was in love with her as a woman, only for her to get married to a man at the end. I at least wish the manga directly acknowledged her as bisexual or somethin'. Last complaint!!! I wish at the end we could see what kind of partner Akira would end up with. I believe she was the only member of the main cast to not have a partner by the end, which made me sad, I really liked her and wanted to see her happy. We at least got her catching a bouquet of flowers at the wedding, hinting she'll find love next, but it was still a bit disappointing. I promise I liked the ending, despite the whining! Best moment of it for me, and for the whole manga really, was seeing Akira finally grow out her hair. I won't lie, seeing her finally have the long hair she dreamed of genuinely made me emotional. Apologies for the rambling, I had a lot of feelings about the ending! Just to note, I wasn't criticizing it there, there's nothing really wrong with it, it was just disappointing to me and some others personally. All my nitpicks aside, this is a super cute queer manga that I'd recommend highly if you're chill with the ending!